A meta ethnography of the cultural constructs of menopause in indigenous women and the context of Aotearoa/New Zealand

Abstract

The researchers aim in this synthesis is to interpret the cultural constructions of menopause in Indigenous women and apply these interpretations to the context of Māori women in Aotearoa/New Zealand. There is a lack of research about Indigenous women’s interpretations of health, and how culture mediates understandings and experiences of menopause. There is even less research regarding Māori women’s understandings and experiences of menopause, as the discourse is dominated by Western ideology. Using meta ethnography methodology, the researchers selected eight studies, that provided the foundations to enable the interpretation of the cultural constructions of menopause in Indigenous women. The findings were then translated into four metaphors- natural, cultural protection, freedom and idiomatic and then were subsequently translated to Māori concepts mana wahine, Mātauranga Māori, tikanga and pepeha. We suggest that broader mainstream understandings of the cultural constructions of menopause for Indigenous women are necessary to provide equitable health outcomes for Māori and other Indigenous women. The researchers further developed a model that can be used to represent the foundations of Māori women’s conscious understandings and experience of menopause.